Under normal circumstances, recent tragedies such as the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the massacre at a Colorado movie theater should have led to a serious consideration of the failures of public policy. Policy itself should have been examined and tweaked until better policies regarding gun access and ownership were found. Gun incidents, however, rarely lead to political action or a public policy change. The ideological charge and the high emotionalism that surround the regulatory apparatus of guns are extraordinary and completely bypass the “normal” path to public policy change. …

Congress recently released a report on the U.S. government’s controversial Fast and Furious “gun-walking” investigation, severely criticizing the Justice Department for allowing criminals to smuggle hundreds of firearms into Mexico. While the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was experimenting with gun-running in Arizona, it concurrently reported that Houston is the No. 1 spot of origin for weapons that have been traced from Mexican organized crime scenes back to the United States. Yet, no federal undercover operations (a la Fast and Furious) have been reported in Texas, a state that makes up two-thirds of the U.S.-Mexico border and that shares numerous bi-directional, land-based ports of entry with Mexico. It’s obvious that we’ve been going about this the wrong way. …

Neil Armstrong was the personification of America’s dreams for space exploration. Yet today, the future of the United States’ human spaceflight program is one of uncertainty and doubt. With the space shuttle grounded, U.S. access to human spaceflight is dependent upon another nation. The developments underway for continued human spaceflight are yet unproven and years away. At best, they will return us to a capability to fly in Earth orbit that we had more than 40 years ago. The nation and Neil deserve better.
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Negotiations at the United Nations conference over a proposed Arms Trade Treaty, which would regulate conventional arms sales across borders, ended in July without a report. The talks will likely resume, however, and many are concerned about the treaty’s implications for the Second Amendment. The concern is justified, given the treaty’s goal is weapons control. Its terms are vague and could be used to launch efforts to attack the constitutional right to bear arms. …

In a recent interview with the Council on Foreign Relations, Baker Institute founding director Edward P. Djerejian said that given a rapidly changing Middle East, the United States must realize that it cannot direct the course of political events in the Arab world. “We can influence those events because we still have many resources and many important interests in the region, but we have to do it collectively, with as many international partners as we can muster,” he said. “Whatever we can do to influence the evolution of these societies under more stable, democratic and free economic paths is where the United States should be crafting its policies.” …

The Mint newspaper, India’s Wall Street Journal affiliate, published a piece by Russell Green, the institute’s Will Clayton Fellow in International Economics, today on India’s directed lending program. Since the 1970s India has set a mandatory target for its domestic banks to lend to certain “priority sectors” including agriculture and small and medium-sized enterprises. The targets have become more ambitious over time, despite slow growth in the agriculture sector. Banks now struggle to meet the targets without jeopardizing their own standards for lending quality. Green criticizes the recent expansion of agricultural lending targets to foreign banks, and suggests ways the program could be improved. …

Baker Institute founding director Edward P. Djerejian recently spoke to the Houston Chronicle about the ongoing crisis in Syria. Among other issues, Djerejian — former U.S. ambassador to Syria and to Israel — discusses President Bashar al-Assad’s fight to retain control and the Obama administration’s approach to U.S. military involvement in the Arab Awakening. …

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